We're trying something new at Dundee this year, but we need your help to make it happen.

We always thought it was a little silly that the School Directory didn't come home until the spring, when there are lots of playdates and family dinners to set up in the fall. So we're not waiting on the school district to put together the directory this year - we're doing it ourselves!

And it's super simple. All you need to do is fill out the paper that is in the Blue Folders this week and return it to school by Friday.

Now that we have a full week of school under our belts, it's time to update everyone on the efforts to keep our crosswalks.

(Reminder: During the 2017/18 school year, the city is studying the crosswalks at 52nd & Chicago and 51st and Farnam for removal.)

The Dundee PTO has formed a committee to work on keeping the crosswalks. We are pursuing efforts with the OPS school administration, the OPS school board, the Omaha City Council, and the Mayor's Office. We are a small but committed group of people who are willing to do what it takes to keep our safest route to school for our kids and the people in our community.

Here are some actions you can take right now to help:

- Sign the Keep Our Crosswalks petition that will be at Dundee Day on Saturday, August 26. (you can even sign up to work the petition booth us here.)

- Help us to count pedestrians by downloading this super simple app called CounterPoint. Anytime you're at one of the two crosswalks, you can take as little or as much time as you want and count pedestrians. I counted this morning for the twenty minutes around school starting time and had more than 20 people using the crosswalk. We would love to have people counting each day as people walk to school and as people walk home from school.

- Use the crosswalks! The city said they will do several counts over the course of the school year to determine the usage of the crosswalks. If no one is using them, they will be more apt to remove them. We have had beautiful weather to begin the school year. Walk to school! And use the crosswalks if they're on your way. The best way to convince the city we need to keep the crosswalks is to use them.

Thanks for all you do to help keep our neighborhood and our school great.

We have a few updates for you on the crosswalks near Dundee that the city planned to remove (at 51st and Farnam and 52nd and Chicago). The city has decided to study them for the coming school year before making any decisions about their removal.

The hundreds of you who emailed and called the city certainly made your voices heard. Way to go! You did such a great job that Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert is going to hold a listening session at Dundee Elementary School in the library on Wednesday, August 9, 2017, at 6:30pm. She plans to bring representatives from the city's Public Works department and they can take questions and respond to our concerns at that time.

Please attend the meeting to show the Mayor how much we value these crosswalks as safe routes for our kids to get to school. We know our community will be respectful to the Mayor and her staff while voicing our concerns.

We also are forming a committee on the PTO that will deal with the crosswalks and any other walkability issues that may arise. If you're interested in joining the committee, send us an email!